Gigi School of Coding Meetup

With our favourite project ‘Gigi School of Coding’ starting soon (11 Feb), we decided to organize a meetup and host all interested in seeing Mistral offices, meeting mentors, and hearing everything about the program in detail.

Hosting over a 100 people was thrilling, but we were well prepared (surround sound system in place, stacked with food and drinks, free promo goodies on spot etc.). To show just how much we care about our future industry colleagues, 11 of us took part in a panel discussion that covered everything we thought relevant to the audience.

We were wrong though. Q&A session lasted almost as much as the whole panel + the after-networking was intense. The level of interest we experienced last night paints a wonderful picture about our younger generations.

So what was the panel like and what we discussed?

Azra Sarić | Head of Communication

Greeted everyone, made an introduction about Mistral; how we’re 8 years old, have 130+ employees, nurture professional development vividly, enjoy various benefits etc.

Sulejman Ćatibušić Gigi | Head of Education

Told the story of how the program first came to be and why; young professionals lacked practical experience and thus were not ready to become full-time employees. This advanced program changes that (you build your own web and mobile app over a 4 month period). He mentioned that to this date there were 57 successful graduates.

Amila Avdukić | Head of Human Potential

Made sure everybody knows where to apply and how. Spoke about “DO’s and DON'Ts” when writing a cover letter and gave interview tips.

Benjamin Delić | UX/UI Designer Explained what UX and UI imply, what his role is and what to expect from him as a mentor. Highlighted the importance of knowing html, css and being familiar with js.

Irhad Babić | Software Developer

Elaborated the whole development process in detail. Mentioned MERN tech stack as this year’s program focus. Gave insights into what kind of apps will candidates develop.

Dženan Dizdarević | Quality Assurance EngineerMade everyone smile by joking about the dev/qa love/hate relationship. Explained how important testing is and what it takes to be a great QA.

Srđan Skočo | DevOps Engineer

Stressed how important it is to work on your soft skills since the job of a DevOps includes A LOT of team collaboration. He shared his Gigi School of Coding experience, and spoke about DevOps practices.

Aldin Selimović | Project Manager

Explained how multiple parties are included in the development of one product; company management, client’s team, development team and others. Getting everything and everyone in sync and moving forward can be quite a struggle.

Mila Gračanin | English Coach

Spoke about SMART goals, presentation skills, language proficiency and how it all comes together in making you a better, respectable professional.

Muaz Hrustanbegović | Business Intelligence developer

Shed the light on the main differences between business intelligence and data science, and introduced machine learning, as one of the main Mistral’s areas of practice.

Adnan Karšić | Software Developer

Spoke about his experience as a developer and about Blockchain (another interesting area of practice at Mistral), shared his Gigi School of Coding story.

The aftermath

50 questions after, and a few days later, we ended up receiving 190+ quality applications. Soon, around 60 top candidates will get a chance at an interview, and 15/60 will join us from 11 Feb as Gigi School of Coding students. We cannot wait!